Serena to Dump Microsoft Exchange for Google Gmail, the Cloud

Google scores a coup over Microsoft in the messaging and collaboration market as application development specialist Serena Software announces plans to replace Microsoft Exchange with Google Gmail. Serena expects to save $750,000 per year in the switch, which will roll out to all 800 employees by the end of 2008.

Serena Software expects to save $750,000 per year by shedding
Microsoft Exchange Server in favor of Google's Gmail application for its 800 employees, officials of
the Web development software maker told eWEEK Nov. 12.
The move, slated to be completed by the end of 2008, is a coup for Google. The
search engine provider has been struggling to entice customers to switch from the
Microsoft Outlook e-mail client and Exchange Server on-premises application to
its SAAS (software as a service) Web mail, word processing, spreadsheet and
other applications.

These applications and data associated with them live on Google's hosted
servers, which customers access through the Internet. This method, also called
cloud computing, is becoming more popular for cost-conscious companies, which
may also be tired of maintaining the servers that house their data.

Ron Brister, senior manager of global IT operations at Serena, told eWEEK
Serena has subscribed to Google's
GAPE (Google Apps Premier Edition) service, the paid version of Google
Apps, for $50 per user, per year.

Brister said it cost Serena roughly $1 million a year to use Exchange once
all of the CALs (client access licenses) and software assurance were factored
in; he expects Serena to pay only a quarter of that to use GAPE.

GAPE includes Gmail, Google's Postini messaging security software and 25GB of
mailbox space, as well as greater uptime and 24/7 phone support. It also
includes other Google productivity and collaboration applications, such as
Google Docs word processing, spreadsheet and presentations, and Google's Sites
wiki.

However, Brister said Serena so far is only using Gmail and the Postini
assets to protect and serve Gmail, largely because Serena staffers are using
Microsoft's SharePoint collaboration software. While there is no current plan
to jettison SharePoint, he conceded that that may change as Serena staffers get
more comfortable with the cloud. Brister added:

What we're finding is it's becoming pretty viral
and it's getting used, taking less of an emphasis off of things like
SharePoint, which becomes static and stale much more quickly when you have
something much more collaborative in the cloud and as easy to use as Gmail.
It's become each of the users' preferences rather than anything we're
dictating.